EU unveils the Digital Markets Act (DMA)

[BenG]

The European Council and the European Parliament have provisionally agreed on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) - aimed to balance competition in the tech industry.

Which companies will be affected?

The law will only target "gatekeepers", defined as companies with

• a market capitalisation of €75bn,
• annual sales of €7.5bn, and
• at least 45 million monthly users.

E.g. Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, Meta, Microsoft

What are the obligations?

A non-exhaustive list of obligations:

• Interoperability: Gatekeepers need to allow their platform to work with smaller platforms.
  • E.g. a Facebook Messenger user must be able to contact a Signal user directly
• Right to uninstall: Users must be allowed to uninstall preloaded apps and choose their default apps when setting up their new devices
  • E.g. a user must be able to choose Play Store as their default app store and uninstall App Store when setting up their new iPad
• Data access: Businesses should be allowed to access data they generate for gatekepers
  • E.g. sellers on Amazon must be able to access Amazon's analytics on their performance
• Ending self-preferencing: Companies can’t use their platforms to rank their products first
  • E.g. Play Store can no longer list Google Chrome at the top result for a search of browser apps in the Play Store, unless there has been a competitive tender for the spot
• Opening up app stores: Platform owners can no longer require app developers to use certain services in order to be listed in app stores
  • E.g. iOS app developers do not need to use Apple's in-app purchase system to be allowed on the App Store
• Supplementary functionalities: Allow third parties to access extra built-in functionalities of a device
  • E.g. iOS app developers must be allowed to have access to the NFC chip in iPhones

What happens if gatekeepers don't comply?

• A fine of up to 10% of global turnover
• For repeat offenders, a fine of up to 20% of global turnover

When will the DMA come into effect?

The DMA is expected to come into force in October, with transition periods for integrations required to establish interoperability.

Edited March 25, 2022 by BenG

[BenG]

Thoughts? Is this fair? Is this government overreach?

[NotDoctor PronounsHe/they]

The Interoperability is such a joke 

Clearly written by someone who has absolutely no idea how these apps work or were designed.  Depending on implementation deadlines they could make all of these apps less secure

[BenG]

On 3/26/2022 at 1:44 PM, NotDoctor said:

The Interoperability is such a joke 

Clearly written by someone who has absolutely no idea how these apps work or were designed.  Depending on implementation deadlines they could make all of these apps less secure

The EU’s obsession with standardisation needs to stop.

”Let’s have more competition by forcing companies to do the same things.”

[Nightwing]

It’s about time Big Tech gets regulated. The U.S. needs to look at this and replicate many of these things. Big Tech is way too powerful and have too much control over the online marketplace.

[BenG]

Further requirements:

• Gatekeepers that control both the hardware and the software of products must allow any developer to access existing hardware features
• Gatekeepers need to have an internal department dedicated to complying with the new regulations

The first one was most likely proposed by people who don't know sh*t about tech